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Displaying items 21 to 40 of 816
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Karoline H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Karoline H., who was born in Barmen, near Wuppertal, Germany in 1911. Mrs. H. recalls childhood in a comfortable, non-observant family; lack of early exposure to antisemitism; attending the University of Freiburg, where she was mistaken for an "Aryan" by Nazi students; working in her parents' store after being barred from law school; her older brother's marriage to a Catholic in 1934; increasing antisemitic restrictions; her parents' naivete? about Nazism; and marriage to a naturalized Dutch Jew in 1936. She describes deteriorating conditions in Danzig (where her husb...

  2. Ena L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ena L., who was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1934. She tells of her life in Belgrade before and during the war and of her flight to northern Italy with her mother, sister, and other relatives. She explains how her family was able to live openly as Jews in a small village near Vittorio Veneto, aided, as were other Jewish refugees, by the Italian government. She describes her life in Amandola where her family fled after Mussolini's fall and where they remained, "passing" as Catholics, for about two years until just before liberation, when they hid in the mountains. ...

  3. Rosy S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rosy S., who was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1923. She recounts her family's move to Luxembourg when she was a baby; her father's Zionist and anti-German activism; an influx of German and Polish Jewish refugees; German invasion in May 1940; fleeing to Antwerp; her brother's bar mitzvah; joining relatives in De Panne, then traveling to Spain via Royan and Hendaye; her father's arrest on a train to Madrid; living in Fuentes de O?noro; futile attempts to obtain her father's release; moving to Lisbon; assistance from HIAS; working for HIAS, then the Red Cross; her grand...

  4. Esther K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Esther K., who was born in 1935 in Split, Yugoslavia. She describes the Jewish community; Italian occupation including parades and expulsion of Jews from public schools; an influx of refugees; a book burning and destruction of the synagogue in June 1942; denial of official responsibility by the Italian government; and rebuilding of the synagogue. Mrs. K. recounts Nazi occupation; her father, brother and oldest sister joining the partisans; being warned of a Nazi round-up by a non-Jewish friend; hiding with her mother and another sister in a mountain village for severa...

  5. Johannes S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Johannes S., a non-Jew who was born in 's-Gravenzande, Netherlands in 1923. He describes growing up in a predominantly Protestant town with little awareness of the situation of European Jewry; the influx of Jewish refugees to the Netherlands following Crystal Night; the relief efforts organized by his school; the outbreak of war, bombing, and the German victory over the Netherlands in four days; and the German occupation with its anti-Jewish decrees. He recalls acts of active and passive resistance; hiding on a farm in Deurningen to avoid conscription into the army; t...

  6. Betty C. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Betty C., who was born in Berlin in 1910. She tells of her happy life in prewar Berlin and describes the rise of antisemitism in Germany, culminating in Kristallnacht, after which she, her husband, and her infant daughter fled the country and emigrated to the United States.

  7. David K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David K., a researcher who specialized in the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. He discusses the emigration of many Jews to Shanghai, their relationships with the already existing Jewish communities, the Chinese, and the Japanese. His book Japanese, Nazis & Jews : the Jewish refugee community of Shanghai, 1938-1945, is an authoritative study of this subject.

  8. Gregory F. Holocaust testimony

    Video testimony of Gregory F., a non-Jew, who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1941. He relates experiences as a "displaced person" in his own country when he and his family were relocated by the Germans from Vienna to a small Austrian town.

  9. Francis O. and Ilia O. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Francis O., who was born in Novi Sad, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Serbia) in 1913, and his wife Ilia O., who was born in Kisač, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Serbia) in 1915. Mr. O. recounts his mother's death in 1915; his father's draft into the Austrian military in World War I; living in a Serbian village with his grandparents, the only Jews there; singing in the church choir; returning to Novi Sad in 1918; living with his aunt; learning that he was Jewish; attending a Jewish school; his father's two remarriages; the births of two half-sisters; part...

  10. Howard F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Howard F., who was born in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in 1910. Mr. F. speaks of his childhood in a "typical German-Jewish, upper-middle-class family"; his father's friendship with department store magnate David May; regarding his best friend's anti-Semitic remarks as a fact of life; difficulties seeking membership in a local club; attending Nazi rallies to learn the identities of regional party leaders; attending Munich University, where he represented Jews in the student parliament; returning to his parents' home in Saarbru?cken after graduation; and leaving his first ...

  11. Ben L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ben L., who was born in Vilna, Poland (presently Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1928, the youngest of three children. He recounts attending a Hebrew-speaking school and a Tarbut school; the arrival of many Polish refugees after the onset of war; delivering food to some of the refugees, including Menachem Begin; Soviet occupation; his brother's participation in the Irgun; his father's non-Jewish associate encouraging them to flee; hiding in the associate's cellar outside Vilna for a few weeks; returning home; fleeing with his family to his paternal grandparents' home in Belaru...

  12. Cecile L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Cecile L., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1923. She recalls moving to Antwerp; living in the Jewish quarter; being placed in a Jewish class at school; antisemitism; German invasion; fleeing with her parents to De Panne, then France (Ambleteuse and Calais); returning to Antwerp; arranging for her grandmother to join them by writing a letter to the Belgian queen; living with her mother (her father was in hiding); attending a Jewish teacher training course in Ghent; teaching in a Jewish orphanage in Brussels; anti-Jewish restrictions; hiding with her parents in sever...

  13. Felix W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Felix W., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1924. He describes antisemitic incidents; the Anschluss; expulsion from school; Kristallnacht; his father's incarceration in Dachau; confiscation of their apartment; his mother's decision that he was to leave while she waited for his father's release; attempting to enter France in December 1938 from Saarbru?cken, then crossing from Karlsruhe to Lauterbourg; being returned by French authorities; crossing from Freiburg to Basel; assistance from the Committee for Jewish Refugees; and joining relatives in Paris in July 1939. Mr...

  14. Len D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Len D., who was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1916. He describes his family's long presence in Germany; his father's kosher butcher business; cordial relations with non-Jews; apprenticeship; Hitler's rising influence; emigration of one brother to the United States; moving to Berlin in 1938; returning to Koblenz; his arrest on Kristallnacht; incarceration in the local jail, then Dachau; being beaten (he still suffers from that injury); release in February 1939; returning to Koblenz; illegally entering Holland; staying with relatives in Amsterdam; making diagrams of Dacha...

  15. Mordka K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Mordka K., who was born in Zdun?ska Wola, Poland, in 1921. Mr. K. tells of his childhood in a religious home; local Jews' disbelief of conditions in Germany related by Zbaszyn? deportees; fleeing to ?o?dz? during the German invasion; return home; being rounded-up and imprisoned at Sieradz in November 1939; release; and telling his family of his decision to escape to the Soviet zone. He recounts abuse by Germans while crossing the border at Ma?kinia; going to Bia?ystok; living with other refugees in Volkovysk; arrest in spring 1940; deportation to a Siberian labor camp...

  16. Esther F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Esther F., who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1923. She describes a happy childhood in a family of seven children; Soviet occupation; German invasion; a futile attempt to flee; separation from her mother and sisters during a selection; learning of their murders in a mass killing from her brother, who escaped from the mass grave; transfer to a labor camp with her father and brothers; her fiancé joining her; sharing extra food with fellow prisoners; requesting her father's transfer to the ghetto hospital when he was ill; transfer to Stutthof; separation from her fath...

  17. Dmitrii M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Dmitrii M., who was born in Cherkasy, Ukraine in 1927. He recalls his prosperous family; observing Jewish holidays; German invasion in 1941; the influx of refugees; fleeing, with his parents and sister, to Kremenchuk in July and Poltava in August; his father's draft; German occupation in September; fleeing alone to Gradizhsk, then Cherkasy; losing contact with his mother and sister; living with his grandmother and cousin; learning his grandmother was shot in November and of the Babi Yar massacre; living in an orphanage in Kiev as a non-Jew; acquaintances who did not r...

  18. Harry M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Harry M., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1920. He recounts his United States citizenship through his father; participation in Jewish athletics; pervasive antisemisitm; German occupation in March 1938; giving a Gestapo official their expired passport to ensure they could leave; leaving with his parents for Paris the same day; traveling to the United States three weeks later; arranging for relatives and his fiancee to join them; military conscription in 1943; infantry service in Europe; assignment as an interpreter in April 1945; choosing not to shoot German POWs wh...

  19. Gabrielle S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gabrielle S., who was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1914. She describes her childhood; the impact of the Nuremberg laws; emigration to the United States in 1938; and returning to Europe as a social worker in 1947 to assist Jewish refugees. Mrs. S. relates her deceased husband's story because she is the last one who knows it. Mr. S. was born in Galicia in 1912. She recounts his being sent away for schooling; attending medical school in Bologna, Italy; his return home; conditions under Russian occupation; the German occupation and being exempted from extermination because...

  20. Rene G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rene G., who was born in Luxembourg in 1934 to Polish refugees. He describes German invasion; moving to Brussels; wearing the yellow star; moving to southern France; detention by French police in Poligny; transfer to a refugee hotel in Lons-le-Saunier; being placed in a deportation train with his mother (his father had left the hotel); removal from the train through the intervention of his aunt while his mother was brutally forced to board; staying with his aunt in Limoges (his father hid in Lyon); brief placement in a Jewish orphanage outside Limoges; staying with Fr...